I got a jury duty summons today

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
42

I was in two jury duties in California. First I was there from 9am to 5pm just waiting for my number to be called, it never was and I was dismissed.

Second time I was there from 9am then had my number called at 11am so noon was when we were sent to a room to get the basics of the case, then we were told to come back the next day or lineup for an excuse. 75% of the people (40 to 50 or so) lined up for the excuse line. I was lucky to be #3, told the Judge I was a seasonal employee and couldn’t risk a single day of no labor so he excused me. A woman before me with no car, a disabled husband who needed full time assistance, and four grandkids she had to take care of every morning was told to come back the next day with a doctor’s note.

43

I was a juror on a drunk driving case. Open and shut: no doubt in anyone’s mind, he was guilty.

But we deliberated. We took our time, and looked at it from every angle. We took turns playing devil’s advocate. We asked ourselves, over and over, is there anything we’re missing?

I was very proud of that jury. It was exactly the jury I would want to be tried by, were I ever accused and charged.

44

I’ve been on five or six (depending on how you count it) juries over the years. And I used to be called like clockwork every two years. The court people denied it up and down, but it was very suspicious that when my company stopped paying for unlimited jury time and only paid for 10 days there were much longer lag times between summonses.

My first jury duty experience was when I was 19. They’d only just changed the voting age to 18 the year before, so that’s why I was so young. It was between my freshman and sophomore years at UCLA at the Santa Monica Courthouse in June (Sonny and Cher were getting their divorce while I was there). But the coolest thing was that my work at the local branch of the county library paid me my salary while I was on jury duty. Since I depended on that money to pay for my school fees, books, etc. it was really important! This was when you had to serve an entire month. No one case or one rejection kind of thing. You had to show up the whole month, and you could be called for a panel any time you were in the jury room. I was on two panels that month. The first was a ADW. The second was a couple of Scottish guys accusing each other of assault outside The Thistle Club in Santa Monica (there is a long history of British ex-pats there). It was a crack up. This one guy would start his testimony, but as he got more involved in telling his story he started talking faster and faster. His accent got thicker and thicker. The judge kept stopping him and telling him to slow down. He’d slow down for a sentence or two. Then, off to the races. It was a stupid case, and, yep, they settled after a couple of days.

I actually liked going to downtown L.A. There were a lot of places you could walk to from the Criminal Courts Building . I liked going to J town for lunch. There was a shuttle to Olvera Street. But last time I was there, some of us on the jury convinced some of the others to go the Kosher Burrito for lunch, but … it was gone!!! I was so disappointed.

I got a summons a couple of months ago, and they wanted us to appear in person. I got off by being in a covid-19 vulnerable population. Thank dog. I didn’t want to go.

45

I never liked jury duty downtown. You have to park too far away and everything about the court is a little bit hostile. And most of the good lunch places that are close are crowded at lunch.

I liked Santa Monica, Torrance is nice, and even Compton was better than downtown (Once, in Compton, I got on a jury for a drug case where all of the non-police witnesses were in jail, which was convenient for having them available to testify, and everyone, including the police, lied during their testimony)

46

I’ve been called three times, all within the past ten years, same county in Texas. First time, ended up in a jury pool for a docket of eight or ten cases of various types. All of them settled before going to trial, so was home by 1 PM.

Second time, checked in by phone and no juries were to be empaneled on my assigned date, so was off the hook.

Most recently (late last year), was assigned to the jury pool for a robbery case, but didn’t make it through voir dire. Again, home by 1 PM. Good, however, 'cause as someone else noted, those damn benches were hard. Nevertheless, I’d happily do it again

47

I hated Compton when I had to report there. Granted, it was years ago. But you had to get there at least 15 minutes early (if not more) because even though the jury assembly room was only on the second floor, all the staircases were locked. You HAD to take the elevator. And the bank of , like, six elevators never had more than two (often one) operational. Then, everybody crammed into the first one that opened its doors. Not pleasant.

48

I served on a jury back in March. I had heard stories similar to others on this thread that the lawyers were looking for idiots, and would dismiss anyone that displayed any sense of intelligence, but I didn’t find that to be the case.

The voir dire was looong. About 30 hours all told, and took most of a week. It was a sexual assault case and the prime reason for people being dismissed (job/medical reasons were handled separately) was that they had some personal experience with sexual assault (themselves or a friend/family member) and that they couldn’t be objective in this case. The defendant’s lawyer really pushed this question on almost everyone. We filled out a questionnaire beforehand so the lawyers had some knowledge going in.

Probably the second most common reason people were dismissed was that they either couldn’t understand or were unwilling to accept our system of justice. Not understanding “beyond reasonable doubt”, or that the burden of evidence is on the prosecution, or that the defendant has the right to not testify or even defend himself.

Third most common was language. Everyone spoke English at some level, but some could not understand questions with a degrees of nuance (such as ones relating to our system of justice).

I was literally the very last selection after 100+ dismissals. I didn’t have any sensitive things on my questionnaire and I could answer the lawyer’s questions about our justice system competently. The lawyer noted that I was an engineer and that we can sometimes get stuck thinking in “binary”, and if I could distinguish absolute proof vs. beyond reasonable doubt. She was satisfied with my answer.

First day on the case, we hear the opening statements, and then testimony by the victim, and then head to lunch. Get back and a plea bargain has been accepted; the case is over.

49

I was called once. I took off work for the first day of jury selection, but any more than that would’ve been problematic… I was teaching a college class starting the next day, and we were told the school would not pay for a sub.

But I inadvertently discovered a way to get off a jury: Ask a pointed question during selection.

The prosecuting attorney, in her supposedly objective overview, made a very SUBjective logical leap so I raised my hand, “Sorry, but did you mean to imply…?” That’s all I got out when she cut me off with “Juror Five’s services will not be required for this trial.”

50

Heh. Some judges in that situation will say, with varying degrees of kindness, “Prospective jurors are expected to answer questions, sir/ma’am, not ask them.”

51

I don’t know if it’s just the county or all of Arizona but jurors (not the veniremen) can ask questions of a witness after both sides are done with them.

They are vetted and asked by the judge after being submitted on a 3x5 card. I have never submitted a question but in the couple trials I was juror, there would typically be two or three such questions after each witness.

Once the juror next to me turned in a card and the judge, silently reading them before asking out loud, looked up at him, gave a little shake of his head, and went on to the next card.

52

The word “prospective” is key in my sentence. Some judges and magistrates in my court here also permit jurors, once in the box during a trial, to ask written questions, with an appropriate limiting instruction.

53

In Shawnee County, Kansas, the rule is one day or one trial. The jury coordinator will decide how many prospective jurors they’ll need (based on number of trials scheduled, etc.) in a given week and issue the summonses, but the prospective jurors are divided into groups (of 15 or so?), and they’ll call for example groups 1 through 11 to report Monday morning, with the remaining groups told to check the recorded line or the website Monday after 5. Then, based on what cases settled/pled out, groups 12 to 16 might have to report on Tuesday, etc. It sometimes happens that they can report that every trial for the remainder of the week is cancelled and so groups not yet called have fulfilled their obligation without ever having to show up.

I’ve never been on a jury. Several times, I’ve been in a high-numbered group and they never needed my group to report. Once, I sat around the courthouse for a morning, but they filled the panel before they got to my group. Twice, I’ve made it into voir dire and been struck peremptorily.

54

My summons says “ONE TRIAL.”

55

Some years back, I got one of those summonses that basically says “call the night before to see if you need to show up”.

Now, I’d be very willing to serve - but I have several sleep/wakefullness issues that would make it very difficult for me to remain awake and attentive while sitting in a jury box for hours. I happened to be visiting my doctor and asked her for a note.

She got a little pissed at people in general trying weasel out of their civic duty - but recognized that in my case it was a genuine inability to serve, and wrote a note on a prescription form or something.

That would not, in and of itself, have meant I didn’t need to show up - but it gave me support if I were to ask the judge to be excluded for medical reasons.

I wound up not needing it. The first of the two days in question, I’d called and was told I was not needed. The second… well, I forgot to call! I got to work, went EEK, called, and found out I was OK.

The only other time I was ever called was in the early 1980s. I was about a year out of college and was the first person I knew who’d ever been called. I sat around a waiting room for hours, was actually called in for jury selection in a civil case, but they got their quota before they got anywhere near me.

My husband has gotten called, and seated on a jury, twice. Once a relatively short shoplifting trial, another time a tax / real estate fraud trial that took a couple of days.

I might actually be able to serve, now, since my sleep issues are now handled with appropriate medication. I wonder if there are drug-sniffing dogs in courthouses that would get me in trouble for carrying (legal, prescribed for me) amphetamines???

56

As long as they are in the prescription packaging, that should not be a problem.

57

Some years ago, my father, then a US District Court judge, got called for jury duty in New York State Supreme Court.

He reported, of course. He didn’t expect to be put on a jury. Much to his surprise, he was.

He said it all went fine, but he still thought it was a bad idea, because when the other jurors found out that he was a judge, they tended to (a) ask him questions that he thought should be directed to the state judge hearing the case, and (b) defer to him and give his opinions during deliberations too much weight, and he didn’t think they should be doing that.

58

Look on the bright side, if they arrest you for drug possession you’ll probably get out of jury duty!

59

I worked in law enforcement for quite a while. Never got a notice for jury duty the entire time. The one and only time I’ve been called to serve on a jury since being an LEO, it turned out to be a trial for a woman I had arrested before, for the same offense. I hadn’t been a cop for several years by then. I walked up close to the attorneys to tell them that, so I didn’t taint the whole room. They asked if I could be a fair and impartial juror for this case, and I told them no. They thanked me for coming, and that was that.

60

Update: I do not have to report.

61

Sorry to hear it, in terms of your not having a chance to do your civic duty and learn more about the courts up close and personal - but glad for you, in terms of having more time for other stuff like work and family and fun. And the Dope!